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Out of the Pit
Out of the Pit was the first and only attempt to catalogue the monsters encountered in the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and was almost totally comprehensive for the books included up to the publishing date of 1985. It is one of the two Fighting Fantasy Manuals and was also, after 1989, deemed to form part of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy System. An oversized version was first published in 1985, and later in 1989, a smaller " " paperbacks are 130mm x 198mm (5.12" x 7.8") in size as opposed to smaller " " paperbacks that are 110mm x 178mm (4.33" x 7.01") size, and which the main Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks series was published as edition to be the same size as Dungeoneer. The latter was published to become integrated with the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system, of which it retrospectively became a part. Creation Out of the Pit was originally a of Fighting Fantasy monsters within the pages of Warlock Magazine, contributed by various authors and readers throughout the issues. This section soon proved so popular that in Warlock Magazine Issue 3 a Monsters Book was advertised as being in production. In Warlock Magazine Issue 4 the book was again advertised as being in production with a working title of Out of the Pit: The Fighting Fantasy Book of Monsters. At around the same time as Warlock Magazine Issue 5 was published, so to was the book Out of the Pit in 1985, which featured creatures from the books that had been published to date plus all creatures that had appeared in this section of Warlock Magazine, as well as some new creations from the mind of Marc GasciogneFrom the Omens and Auguries section of Warlock Magazine Issue 6. The section continued to appear in Warlock beyond the publishing of the book, thus there are some creatures that appear in the Out of the Pit section of the magazine, that do not appear in the book. The bestiary was written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone and edited by Marc Gascoigne. The impressive A4 version boasted a highly acclaimed cover illustration by Christos Achilleos featuring a horde of undead, demons and dragons advancing. Background Blurb Contents The monsters are arranged alphabetically. As stated, almost every opponent encountered thus far in the Fighting Fantasy series is present plus some notable additions. Monster Statistics Besides a SKILL and STAMINA score they are given a HABITAT, NUMBER ENCOUNTERED, TYPE, REACTION and INTELLIGENCE rating and/or description. Additionally there is a ''number of attacks rating. Rather than referring to the number of blows a monster/character can produce in one round, it refers to the number of opponents the monster can handle and injure at one time. For more information on each of the statistics above please see Fighting Fantasy Statistics. One criticism of the book was that it was questioned whether people would look up a specific creature in Out of the Pit for guidance when they ran into it in one of the Fighting Fantasy books.Mark J. Popp, Fighting Fantasy.com, ''Review of Out of the Pit However, the additional statistics over the basic Skill and Stamina are a clear indication that the book was intended for the furtherment of more advanced roleplaying, and indeed the book did become part of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system. Monster Descriptions The descriptions are concise and give the reader a more detailed understanding of the background of the creatures. Illustrations Each monster description is followed by an illustration. And many of the most well known Fighting Fantasy Artists are represented here as the majority of drawings are from the gamebooks. However, there are some original illustrations as well. Note on Colour Plates in Oversized original edition In the original large edition, eight wonderful colour illustrations were included by: *Christos Achilleos - Doragar *Julek Heller - Night Demon *Terry Oakes - Brain Slayer *Alan Craddock - Fog Devil *Ian Miller - Life-Stealer *Julek Heller - Dracon *Mark Bromley - Dark Elf *Iain McCaig - Shapechanger Setting The introduction to the book mentions that the monsters populate the world of Titan. This appears to be the first time that Titan is referenced as the world of Fighting Fantasy. It also confirmed that Allansia and Kakhabad are separated by the ocean, and therefore there were at least two land masses. The existence of a third continent was not apparent at this point - the only previous link between Allansia and Kakhabad is found in the description of the ZIP spell in the Sorcery! series, which requires a Ring of Green Metal mined under Craggen Rock. Maps At the front of the book are two maps of Allansia and Kakhabad by David Andrews. This, along with the introductory comments to the book, confirmed that Allansia and Kakhabad existed on the same planet and that the Fighting Fantasy series and Sorcery! series were connected geographically. Advanced Fighting Fantasy System This book was originally published in 1986 before the term Advanced Fighting Fantasy System was coined in 1989. It was partially created to add depth to the world of Titan to enable role-playing games to be created by readers and so when AFF was crystalised as a role-playing system with the publishing of Dungeoneer, it was a logical fit to have this book as an accompaniment, along with the other Manual, Out of the Pit. The two books were reprinted, this time in a smaller editions to be the same size as Dungeoneer. The latter was published to become integrated with the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system, of which it retrospectively became a part. to complement the size of the AFF book Dungeoneer. From 1989 onwards the books were both listed as being part of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy System in the book listing at the front of all Fighting Fantasy books where "The Advanced Fighting Fantasy System" was shown as a sub-title.Although this listing intermittently including "The Advanced Fighting Fantasy System" as a sub-title. For example, in Master of Chaos the "The Advanced Fighting Fantasy System" is shown as a sub-title, with the books listed beneath it, but in the next book, Black Vein Prophecy, this sub-title does not exist and the books are simply listed at the bottom of the page. The sub-title intermittently returned later on, but whenever it did so, both Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World and Out of the Pit are included. Interestingly, however, neither book was ever published with the distinctive AFF banner or AFF logo, or with the blue spine associated with AFF. Hence, they remained separate in that sense. Also, in the 25th Aniversary Edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the books are grouped with Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-playing Game and The Riddling Reaver as well as the pure Advanced Fighting Fantasy books, under the singular heading "Fighting Fantasy:'' The Role-Playing Game and Advanced ''Fighting Fantasy", which suggests that the compilers of the "The Fighting Fantasy Collection" section did not want to distinguish them as belonging to Advanced Fighting Fantasy alone. See Also *List of Creature Entries from Out of the Pit References Category:Fighting Fantasy Manuals Out of the Pit Category:Advanced Fighting Fantasy Series